Teachers Find Live Animal In Student’s Backpack

Teachers found this live animal inside a student's backpack after searching for the source of scratching noises.

By Rick Gonzales | Published 2 years ago

When Dora the Explorer’s backpack sings, “Anything that you might need, I’ve got inside for you,” you can believe her. She is, after all, a cartoon, and just about anything can be pulled out of a cartoon backpack. But what about reality? Unsuspecting teachers found out the hard way that life sometimes imitates art.

Two teachers were doing what teachers do when students are not in the class. Catching up on grading work and making class plans. They weren’t making any noise, except for the pecking away at their keyboards, so when they began to hear scratching, they were fairly alarmed. They immediately found the source of the scratching Two teachers were doing what teachers do when students are not in the class. Catching up on grading work and making class plans. They weren’t making any noise, except for the pecking away at their keyboards, so when they began to hear scratching, they were fairly alarmed. They immediately found the source coming from a backpack and went to investigate.

The teachers posted to the TikTok handle @lifeisbetterlaughingg their search and they without a doubt lived up to the TikTok handle. The scratching was coming from the student’s backpacks that were hanging in the classroom. As one teacher began her search, she wrote on the Tik Tok video, “While the kids were at gym, my co-teacher and I were working silently on computers. We heard scratching sounds over and over so we had to investigate all the backpacks.”

The posted video showed exactly that. The ladies, while freaking out, appear to be having fun with their search. They are constantly giggling as the one teacher in the video tentatively opens backpacks, looking for the source of the scratching noise. The other teacher encourages her by saying, “Open it. I volunteer you.”

The teacher in the video then proceeds to look through containers on the floor before she starts with the backpacks. She homes in on one, unzipping pockets and pulling out contents. When she doesn’t find one, the video jumps to her looking through a lunchbox. Suddenly, the teacher filming says, “I think it’s a live turtle.” While the first teacher doesn’t believe her, she is told to “Look in the back part of the backpack.” When she does, she gets a nice surprise. A live turtle.

The teacher shooting the video then approaches the backpack, zooming in on the turtle. “Oh my god, the poor thing,” she exclaims. “Why is it in there?” Apparently, the young student had been going on non-stop all day about his turtle. What the teachers didn’t realize was that the turtle he was talking about was mere feet from them.

“He told me about this turtle today, but I didn’t know it was in his backpack,” said one of the teachers. “He told me about it, but I didn’t know it was here,” responded the other. “He talked to me about it for like half an hour.” The startled teachers eventually got the turtle out and put him safely in a plastic box. While they have not updated inquiring minds on the Tik Tok page, the initial “live turtle in a backpack” video has racked up over 12 million views. You can see the entire turtle interaction here.

Of course, live turtles aren’t the only live thing children have hidden in their backpacks to be brought to school. Just ask 4th-grade teacher Carey Geipel. Like the two teachers above, Geipel was working during her planning period when she and a co-worker heard a familiar noise. Meowing.

They took a quick peek out the classroom windows to see if they could find the culprit, but no luck. There was no cat outside, so that left only one other option. The cat was inside the classroom. The search began with the teachers checking purses (thinking it may be a ringtone) and lunchboxes. When they couldn’t find anything, they went to another source. Backpacks.

Imagine Geipel’s surprise when she removed a jacket off the top of one backpack and the backpack moved. “I unzip the backpack and a cat’s head POPS out!” she wrote on her Facebook post. She included a picture of her and the cat. She did follow up on concerns by writing, “[The] cat is safe and [the] student’s mom came to pick it up.” All’s well that ends well.

“I’m the backpack loaded up with things and knickknacks too,” raves Dora’s backpack. Still, it’s nice to see that kids still do and say the darndest things. Even if they get their cues from a cartoon.